>
> I don't see how this is relevant to the problem of udev and /usr at
> all. Unless you want to go back to the days of devfs and lots of
> manual configuration. :)

Me either (somewhat). But I do see is this: If udev is going to make it a
requirement that one or more paritions be available at udevd start time,
then maybe going back to devfs might not be such a bad idea after all.
I use plain vanilla setups on almost any Linux box I build. For x86, LILO
(yes, that thing), a simple kernel, most hardware built in, some extraneous
stuff built as modules. sysvinit for the init package, /{usr,home,var,tmp}
on separate partitions, no X11, no gnome, no KDE, no Xfce, no fluxbox, no
IRIS Indigo, no aewm++, no CDE, no DBUS, no audio support (the machine
doesn't even have an audio card), headless (except with it messes up, which
is very rare), etc. I.e., I run my box like a server.
My MIPS systems (the working ones, anyways) are even more vanilla. I
netboot each of them off my x86 box versus using a bootloader, they have
what amounts to a minimal Gentoo install, system + plus other utilities,
definitely no X11, etc.
These setups are pretty much plain vanilla Linux/UNIX setups, and it's what
has worked for years, so I don't see a need to change it with a permanence.
If other distros want to create alternatives, that is fine. But *I* should
retain the choice to use or not to use those alternatives. That means, udev
needs to be configurable enough to allow me to make it _not_ require /usr
being available. Let the default be the other way -- that's fine.
But if udev upstream is taking *away* choice, and making /usr mandatory
(especially if it's because some other distro has this offbeat, utopian,
überDesktop concept), then that's a bug and someone needs to write a patch
and send it upstream.
--
Joshua Kinard
Gentoo/MIPS
kumba@g.o
4096R/D25D95E3 2011-03-28
"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And
our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic